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When to rely on maternal effects and when on phenotypic plasticity?

When to rely on maternal effects and when on phenotypic plasticity?
When to rely on maternal effects and when on phenotypic plasticity?
Existing insight suggests that maternal effects have a substantial impact on evolution, yet these predictions assume that maternal effects themselves are evolutionarily constant. Hence, it is poorly understood how natural selection shapes maternal effects in different ecological circumstances. To overcome this, the current study derives an evolutionary model of maternal effects in a quantitative genetics context. In constant environments, we show that maternal effects evolve to slight negative values that result in a reduction of the phenotypic variance (canalization). By contrast, in populations experiencing abrupt change, maternal effects transiently evolve to positive values for many generations, facilitating the transmission of beneficial maternal phenotypes to offspring. In periodically fluctuating environments, maternal effects evolve according to the autocorrelation between maternal and offspring environments, favoring positive maternal effects when change is slow, and negative maternal effects when change is rapid. Generally, the strongest maternal effects occur for traits that experience very strong selection and for which plasticity is severely constrained. By contrast, for traits experiencing weak selection, phenotypic plasticity enhances the evolutionary scope of maternal effects, although maternal effects attain much smaller values throughout. As weak selection is common, finding substantial maternal influences on offspring phenotypes may be more challenging than anticipated.
environmental change, epigenetics, indirect genetic effect, maternal inheritance, nongenetic effect, phenotypic plasticity
0014-3820
950-968
Kuijper, Bram
f4f90923-ed35-4fba-82fb-8f396d83f1cc
Hoyle, Rebecca B.
e980d6a8-b750-491b-be13-84d695f8b8a1
Kuijper, Bram
f4f90923-ed35-4fba-82fb-8f396d83f1cc
Hoyle, Rebecca B.
e980d6a8-b750-491b-be13-84d695f8b8a1

Kuijper, Bram and Hoyle, Rebecca B. (2015) When to rely on maternal effects and when on phenotypic plasticity? Evolution, 69 (4), 950-968. (doi:10.1111/evo.12635). (PMID:25809121)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Existing insight suggests that maternal effects have a substantial impact on evolution, yet these predictions assume that maternal effects themselves are evolutionarily constant. Hence, it is poorly understood how natural selection shapes maternal effects in different ecological circumstances. To overcome this, the current study derives an evolutionary model of maternal effects in a quantitative genetics context. In constant environments, we show that maternal effects evolve to slight negative values that result in a reduction of the phenotypic variance (canalization). By contrast, in populations experiencing abrupt change, maternal effects transiently evolve to positive values for many generations, facilitating the transmission of beneficial maternal phenotypes to offspring. In periodically fluctuating environments, maternal effects evolve according to the autocorrelation between maternal and offspring environments, favoring positive maternal effects when change is slow, and negative maternal effects when change is rapid. Generally, the strongest maternal effects occur for traits that experience very strong selection and for which plasticity is severely constrained. By contrast, for traits experiencing weak selection, phenotypic plasticity enhances the evolutionary scope of maternal effects, although maternal effects attain much smaller values throughout. As weak selection is common, finding substantial maternal influences on offspring phenotypes may be more challenging than anticipated.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 28 February 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 April 2015
Published date: April 2015
Keywords: environmental change, epigenetics, indirect genetic effect, maternal inheritance, nongenetic effect, phenotypic plasticity
Organisations: Applied Mathematics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 376817
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/376817
ISSN: 0014-3820
PURE UUID: d483e972-bf02-4f6f-b83c-1e8ccab7968f
ORCID for Rebecca B. Hoyle: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1645-1071

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Date deposited: 12 May 2015 13:56
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:36

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Author: Bram Kuijper

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